Reunited
by K9oftheTwoStrings
Summary: After "marrying" her beloved James, the Ghost of Maiden's Peak feels that a "wedding present" is the perfect cure for her groom's jittery nerves. Crossover re-write of my favorite scene from "Tim Burton's Corpse Bride" in the style of my favorite Pokemon episode, "The Ghost of Maiden's Peak". Oneshot. Contains lines from original film.


"Oh, thank heaven, I finally lost her..." James panted, exhausted from running nearly a mile through nothing but winding corridors and alleyways and resting his hand upon a cold stone wall that was decaying with age. It seemed as if all the nervous lavender-haired Team Rocket agent had been doing for the past seven or eight hours or so was run away. However, running away from your abusive parents and insane in-laws seemed like a natural thing (for him at least anyway), but from a nearly two-thousand-year-old ghost of a lovesick maiden was where he drew the line. "If I told her once, I told her a thousand times, I am not nor have I ever been or ever will be a samurai!" he panted, looking around for any sign of his ghoulish bride. He signed. His original thought was correct: He had managed to lose her somewhere in one of the tunnels. "Okay. Good. She's gone. Now all I have to do is-" But just when he thought he was safe:

"Jamesy darling, where are you?"

"Oh no! She's here!" he shrieked. At the sound of the ghostly maiden's voice, James once again began to take off, running through the crowded and rather cramped passageways of the Land of the Dead, trying to escape the undead madwoman who was claiming to be his lawfully wedded wife. However, after about less than a minute of running, he hit a dead end.

"Great!" he yelped, "What am I supposed to do now?!"

But as the maiden's voice got louder and louder and echoed throughout the corridor, he realized that he desperately needed a way to escape. He had no idea which tunnel the ghost would come out of, since her voice seemed to echo throughout all of them, so simply choosing one and hoping for the best was not an option. However, he desperately needed a plan and he needed one now, otherwise he could be stuck for all eternity as the cuddle buddy of a dead woman! Taking a more careful look at the wall in front of him, he had noticed a handful of small holes where the concrete appeared the weakest. He certainly didn't want to resort to scaling that thing, however, under his given circumstances, what other choice did he have? As the maiden called out for his name once more, James scrambled up the wall as best as he could. After a few seconds, he managed to reach the top terrace. However, as he began to pull himself up, he was confronted by the very entity with which he was trying to get away from in the first place. He gasped. _How'd she get up here?!_ He asked himself, trembling and whimpering in fear.

The ghost simply chuckled: "You could've used the stairs, silly!" she giggled, reaching out her hand for her jumpy groom to take into his own to help pull him up and over the guard railing. James away for a second and looked to his left: The ghost was right, there WAS a staircase he could have used.

"Oh…" he chortled nervously, "How uh… how silly of me…" he then proceeded to lift one of his shaky hands and give it to the ghost, who pulled him up onto the balcony upon which she stood. She then proceeded to dance and skip around gracefully, giggling and laughing and humming little ditties to herself. She paused and took a better look at the world around her. The entire Land of the Dead was illuminated with lanterns, presumably in honor of the Obon Festival. She sighed: "Uh, isn't the view beautiful, James darling?"

James took a look around him and allowed a small smile to escape his lips, "Uh, yeah?" he replied, his voice cracking slightly, making it sound like he was answering the ghost's question with another question.

"Oh I just knew you'd agree!" the ghost squealed, clapping her hands together, "Oh Jamesy, it takes my breath away!" she paused, before letting out "Well, it would if I had any…" with a chuckle. "Oh, isn't it romantic?" She took a seat on the bench behind her and motioned for her groom to sit down next to her. James did so, reluctantly, and continued to stare at the light coming from the distant lanterns, never once turning to look at the figure sitting next to him. After a few moments of painfully awkward silence, James replied:

"Look… I'm… TERRIBLY sorry about what's happened to you, and I'd like to help, but I REALLY have to get home."

The ghost looked at him and smiled, "This is your home now!" she said cheerfully, still gazing wistfully into the scenery around them, happy that she was now finally married to the man whom she had waited centuries for.

James sighed. There was no point in trying to argue with her: she was awfully persistent, and how on earth was he going to possibly explain that he was not the brave young soldier whom she had died waiting for to return to her, let alone the fact that he was not actually dead? Instead, he tried to go along and live in her moment of wedded bliss. "Well uh, I… But I don't even know your name…" he mumbled, trying to find a possible way to carry on a conversation with her.

Out of the blue, a Gastly appeared from thin air and circled around the ghost of the maiden, "Well, that's a way to start a marriage…" the ghost-type Pokémon grumbled sarcastically, staring at James. It began to wonder how in the heck did the awkward purple-haired twenty-something had even managed to put a ring on his trainer's finger without even knowing her name! "Wow… this guy is a REEEEAL catch… Pretty desperate, if you ask me…" The maiden scowled at her Pokémon partner and dismissed it with a dramatic flick of her hand, "Shhhh! Shut up!" she whispered as the creature disappeared behind her in a poof of purple smoke.

 _I wonder who she's talking to…_ James thought, staring awkwardly at the deceased woman, unaware that there was a Pokémon present, _There's nobody here but…_

His thoughts were soon interrupted: "It's Emily…" the ghost crooned, looking directly into James' bright emerald eyes.

"Emily…" he whispered. He turned away from her once more and returned to his thoughts, processing every letter and syllable in the ethereal woman's name. _Emily…_ he pondered. Putting a name to the specter instead of simply referring to her as "the ghost of Maiden's Peak" or even simply "the maiden" gave her back her a more human element, therefore making her presence with him much less dreadful. _What a pretty name…_ he then continued, _I've always liked that name, Emily…_ He was nearly about to go off on a random tangent before the ghost- or Emily, rather- interrupted him.

"Oh! I almost forgot! I have something for you!" she reached underneath of the bench and pulled out a Luxury Ball, faded from presumably being buried for nearly a decade. She handed it to him with a smiled and whispered, "It's a wedding present."

James examined the contraption that had been placed into his hands. He looked at it from top to bottom, examining its scratches, dents, and places where the original paint was peeling off. He then proceeded to tap it with one of his free fingers: It didn't sound hollow, meaning that there was quite possibly a Pokémon inside. But just before he could release the creature, the pokeball began to violently shake and rattle, flying out of the Team Rocket agent's hands and onto the floor in front of him, landing on it's capture mechanism and releasing a disassembled skeleton. James gasped, _No way… C…Could it be?_ After a few seconds, the bones began piecing themselves back together again, forming a complete skeleton of a Growlithe. The reanimated puppy Pokémon barked happily, picked up a frayed red collar from off of the ground and scampered over to the happy couple, sitting on its hind legs and handing the collar to James. After a few seconds of examining the dirty old thing, James looked up at the skeleton with sparkling eyes and asked: "Growlie? Is that you?"

The Growlithe skeleton yapped happily, nearly ecstatic that his master had still recognized him after all these years.

"Growlie!" James squealed, motioning for his childhood friend to hop into his lap like they did in the good ol' days, "My Growlithe Growlie!" Growlie happily obliged and jumped onto his trainer, nuzzling his chest with his bony snout and letting out another giddy bark. James pet him on top of his smooth skull.

"I know you'd be happy to see him!" Emily giggled, as the Growlithe jumped back onto the floor in front of them.

"Who's my good boy!" James crooned, blushing with glee. "Sit, Growlie! Sit!" he commanded as Growlie did just that. "Roll over, roll over! Good boy, Growlie!" he squeaked, as Growlie happily performed the trick for them. It was nice to see that even after being dead for ten years or so, Growlie hadn't completely forgotten his extensive obedience school training… Well… most of it, anyways…

"Play dead!" he replied with a smile. Growlie's curly tail stopped wagging momentarily. He let out a somewhat confused whimper and coked his head, wondering why his trainer had asked such a strange command of him. Realizing what he just said, James blushed in embarrassment. "Sorry…" he apologized, letting Growlie climb up onto his lap once more.

Emily laughed gleefully as she began to scratch the fire-type Pokémon's hip bone: "Aww! What a cutie!" she hummed.

"You should've seen him with fur!" James chuckled, kissing his long-dead companion on the snout.

Emily giggled and took a look at the twosome: a boy and his puppy Pokémon, happily reunited after so many years apart. Feeling accomplished for what she had done, she began to look off into the distance once more, still mindless scratching Growlie's hip. _This is it._ She thought, letting a smile form across her pale face, _this is the start of something beautiful. A man, a woman, and their dog. Together a happy family._


End file.
